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Why SimpleNote is Simple Yet Powerful

Notes capturing have come a long way since the days of cave painting and moleskin notebook. Not only has it gone full digital, cross platforms, you can now easily search notes you created years ago!
Problem is most people aren’t aware of what is possible and aren’t really taking advantage of the latest technologies to make their life easier.

For taking notes during meetings, at a conference or planning for an events or occasion I simply have not come across a more elegant solution than Simplenote.

If you are looking for a full content management system that supports web clipping, audio and rich text, you should look no further than Evernote; but if you are looking for a simple, fast, no frills note taking solution, Simplenote ticks all the boxes for me and trust me when I say I have tested my fair share of note taking systems!

Ever since the first version of Simplenote, the team at Simperium has kept to their core strategy and focused on being a simple, no-frills note taking solution. But don’t be fooled by the simple looking interface as the platform has evolved over the years and is now an incredibly powerful note taking platform. Some of the things that makes Simplenote such a effectively note taking system today include:

1. It is True Multi-Platform

Simplenote has dedicated apps for iPhone, iPad on top of the native web client through any browser. Through its mature API and developers program, Simplenote now also has a large number of third party desktop and mobile apps. Simply put, you can access Simplenote anytime, everywhere and the synchronisation works flawlessly.

The true power of a multi-platform solution is demonstrated when the note I just took on my iPad during a meeting is instantly available to me on my desktop through the browser when I am back at my desk. In digital form ready for editing no less! I can’t imagine how much time Simplenote has saved me over the years just in organising meeting notes.

2. It is Fast!

It might seem odd to attribute fast as an important features of a note taking solution, but often it is the very reason people stick with their pen and paper solution. The no-frills approach of Simplenote means that it is incredibly fast. It is fast to launch, it is fast to create a new note, it is fast to edit a note, and it is fast to retrieve and open an existing note. There is also something to be said about how intuitive it is to perform these actions, something that has to be experienced to be appreciated.

It should be noted that there is also a simple, intuitive tagging systems to help with organisation and retrieval, but it is definitely not forced upon you to have to tag your notes if you don’t want to. You don’t even have to give your note a name if you are really in a rush!

3. Search Enabled

If you need one feature to convince your friend to go digital and abandon your moleskin notebook, the ability to search through your notes instantaneously would be the obvious choice.

Simplenote supports note searching across all of the supported platforms, and the improvements the team has put into the platform over the last year means the search process is incredibly…. FAST!

There is something akin to magic when you type in a client’s name in the search box of the iPhone Simplenote app and retrieve a meeting note you created two years ago when the name was mentioned. All without you having to do anything extra to enable it.

In addition to search, the ability to tag and pin certain notes make note retrieval even easier for other usage scenarios. Example of this is the use of tags to group meeting notes by clients and pin your shopping list so you can get to it instantly.

All in all, Simplenote is an incredible useful note taking platform that is well implemented and more importantly, well thought out from the user’s perspective.

If you believe you have a better note taking system, leave a comment as I would love to hear from you!

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I have been helping organisations deal with the challenge of information management for more than 10 years and believe individuals can also benefit from similar strategies and solutions.
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